This invention relates to library services and methods and apparatus for managing reuse rights for content. Works, or “content”, created by an author is generally subject to legal restrictions on reuse. For example, most content is protected by copyright. In order to conform to copyright law, content users often obtain content reuse licenses. A content reuse license is actually a “bundle” of rights, including rights to present the content in different formats, rights to reproduce the content in different formats, rights to produce derivative works, etc. Thus, depending on a particular reuse, a specific license for that reuse may have to be obtained.
Many organizations use content for a variety of purposes, including research and knowledge work. These organizations obtain the content and the rights to reuse that content through many vendors, including publishers and subscription resellers. Due to the number of vendors and rights involved, these organizations often additionally engage the services of a license clearinghouse to obtain and manage these rights. The license clearinghouse, in turn, has a central repository that it maintains on behalf of multiple organizations. For each organization, the central repository includes license rights acquired from the license clearinghouse and license rights acquired through direct negotiations with vendors. Additionally, even though there is a central repository, many organizations maintain their own virtual database that allows them to manage their own rights.
In order to determine whether a reuse right for a particular content item has been previously purchased and is therefore available or whether it must be newly purchased, a member of an organization must check the virtual database and, if the right is not there, make a right request either directly to a vendor who provides the content item or to the license clearinghouse. Individual vendors can provide a higher level of service value if they are aware of the rights that an organization has previously acquired. For example, assuming that a member of an organization requests a copy of a content item from a vendor, if that vendor is aware that the organization has already acquired a right to an original of the content item, the vendor can charge a fee appropriate for a content item copy rather than a fee for an original content item. Similarly, if the vendor is aware that the organization has acquired a right to an original content item together with rights to share that content item in specified format, the vendor can provide a copy of the content item in the specified format without charge. In another scenario, if a vendor is aware that an organization has not acquired access to an original content item, but does have rights to share the item in given format, the vendor can provide access to original free of digital rights management restrictions because copying of the content item is allowed. Another way vendor can provide a higher service level is by indicating available rights and permissions when the content item is provided to the client.
However, in order to be aware of all of the rights that an organization has previously acquired, a vendor must access the license clearinghouse database. While many vendors are themselves customers of the license clearinghouse services, each customer is only allowed to access the portion of the central repository that belongs to it. Therefore, a vendor cannot access the portion of the central repository that belongs to its client.